New company to produce protein drugs

By Camaron Kao / Staff reporter

Wed, Sep 04, 2013 - Page 13

Private and public sectors have collaborated to launch a biopharmaceutical company to produce protein drugs, with the intention of helping local companies manufacture such drugs for clinical trials.

INVESTORS

Active pharmaceutical ingredient maker Formosa Laboratories Inc (台耀化學), the government-funded Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB) and the state-run National Development Fund are all investors in EirGenix Inc (台康生技), capitalized at NT$540 million (US$18.17 million).

DCB and Formosa Laboratories each have an 18 percent holding in the new company launched yesterday, while the National Development Fund has a 12 percent stake.

EirGenix has the capacity to produce 800 liters of protein drugs and is set to expand its capacity to 1,500 liters in the second quarter of next year, and to 30,000 liters within eight to 10 years, EirGenix chief executive officer Liu Lee-cheng (劉理成) said.

BREAST CANCER

The company is also developing a generic drug for treating breast cancer, and the company estimated the worldwide market for such a drug to be US$6 billion, according to Liu.

EirGenix is set to break even in 2016 and become a listed company in Taiwan in 2017, Liu said.